The attention to detail in the game is ridiculously high. The camera, animation, combat, the core concept, is excellently executed. It's all so well thought-out and well tuned. I say that as someone who has struggled endlessly with getting these things right before, even in non-jam settings, and never really succeeding. I'm in disbelief at what you've achieved in 48 hours.

The torch is central to the game, literally. It allows me to see, which I can immediately tell is important, given the large percentage of the screen that is pitch-black. I love that your torch level IS your health bar, making it so much more significant to the core gameplay, rather than just being aesthetic. I feel this sort of significance of mechanics is something that Mark talks about in many of his videos.

Dashing feels so good. As I used it more, I slowly realized that I was using my precious light. You've woven everything together in this game, which gives it a wonderful clarity.

If there's anything you could work on, I would say it's teaching the player, through level design, about why the torch is precious to you. Make a long hallway with no refill stations, then just as the player is about to run out of light, give them a torch-on-a-wall. Make a maze of gaps that forces the player to dash a lot, maybe even run them out of light. Don't be afraid to kill the player. I should mention that I never even died once, even though I knew I was messing up. Eventually I figured out the cadence of the combat, but there's really nothing stopping me from mashing the attack button relentlessly while I'm near a torch, which is really easy given the high density of torches on the map. I feel like you could push this game to create moments of greater excitement.

Thank you so much for your awesome compliments and feedback on the game! I really enjoyed the process of weaving all the mechanics together and how interrelated they are to one another! And I couldn't agree with you more, as the game's level designer, I realized afterward that there needed to be far fewer torches scattered throughout the map. In playtesting (after publishing the game) I found out that if you stand by a wall-torch that you'll literally never die (unless you agroed like 5 enemies). So definitely something I will take away from this experience to use in future projects! And if I continue to work on this project after the judging is over I'll definitely make the appropriate changes. Thank you so much for playing our game!